Read Damon Lindelof’s Draft of the PROMETHEUS Script

No matter what you thought about Ridley Scott‘s Prometheus (I thought it was great), it’s amazing that people are still talking about it. I say this because in our culture of always moving onto the next thing once something’s come out, I love that people are still discussing the ideas and mythology, and what they’d like to see in a sequel (which I hear is definitely moving forward).

As most of you know, Prometheus was penned by two screenwriters: Jon Spaihts and Damon Lindelof, in addition to the original conception of the franchise elements from Ronald Shusett and the late Dan O’Bannon. After a number of drafts by Spaihts, Lindelof was brought in to balance the story and to expand on character relationships and mythology, but to leave the characters and the narrative structure in place. Continued after the jump.

Over the last month, a lot more about the making of Prometheus has been revealed. Spaiths recently spoke about the scenes left unseen from his original script, including the greater prevalence of the xenomorphs and a different version of the MedPod scene.

In addition, a few days ago, Spaiths draft of the screenplay leaked, which you can download here. Some of the differences were (thank you Dave):

Spaihts’ version involved an underwater sequence where the Earth-bound scientists discovered the star map with the use of submarines in a sunken Mediterranean city.

When pitching the exploratory mission to Weyland, Spaihts had alternate versions taking place aboard a space station and Weyland’s home on Mars, which was in the process of being terraformed.

Spaihts tries to explain away the idiocy of the scientists Milburn (Rafe Spall) and Fifield (Sean Harris), saying it was more due to editing, since they cut an earlier scene of Milburn becoming ecstatic over the discovery of a harmless alien life form: “It really showed how excited Milburn was by experiencing any extra-terrestrial, sophisticated life. That sort of explains why he’s acting like a complete utter moron here. The last thing you do when you see a snake in the wild is get your face really close to it and start smiling and extending your hand like you wanna pet it.”

Scott himself had the idea for ramming one spaceship into another and it was Spaihts’ job to make that work in the narrative.

Spaihts can claim the credit for the MedPod scene and Shaw’s impregnation.

Since so many people are talking about the script, I figured I’d share something I’ve had since the summer: Damon Lindelof’s draft of the script which was called “Paradise.” Click here to read.

If you’re a fan of reading scripts, or just curious about the differences between Spaiths draft and Lindelof’s draft, I hope you enjoy it. I’m not listing the differences here, but I’m sure within a few hours someone will.

Finally, I’d love to hear what you thought about Prometheus in the comment section (which I know has some issues and we are working on it). Were you like me and thought it was great? Were you let down? Let me know.